Dear Girl,
I've been there—frustrated to your wits' end because you don't feel smart enough, and it's really bringing you down. Maybe others have been giving you a hard time, whether they've been calling you slow, or seemingly harmless names or adjectives such as "spaz" or "slow." I'm not a stranger to such endearments myself. I was tormented by strangers, classmates, friends, kids, and adults alike. I have ADHD and a learning disability and I was never one to make the A/B honor roll, yet here I am, a junior English major in college on my way to get my Ph.D.
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You may ask just how the heck I'm doing what I'm doing because there are many people who would laugh if they knew where I am today. Honest to goodness, I am where I want to be because I want to be here and I'm working and fighting so hard at doing so that there's little to nothing (but mostly nothing) anyone could do to deter me. I took the critics and the small-minded and I fought back. I'm a person and my dreams are valid, and I decided to shoot for bigger and better things.
I don't know what you're aiming for in life, but you can get there if you work for it. I hope you never settle for anything beneath you because people made you believe you weren't smart. You don't need a degree or a Ph.D. to prove that to them, but if that's what you want, go for it! It's not easy, but you probably know nothing is. You know things, girl. As Abileen Clark once said in "The Help," "You is kind. You is smart. You is important." This is your mantra. You have to tell yourself and make yourself smart by finding knowledge, because odds are, no other human will make you smart. I hope you meet a mentor who believes in you and nurtures your mind, and if you haven't found one yet, I'm so sorry. Good news is, you don't need another human to reach your potential—you can put your best foot forward and your little pIth helmet and declare yourself explorer of the world. It's your world, make it your own. Discover it, make a map of it. And learn something new. Then teach people, because it's worth it in the end.
To whoever is reading these words, kudos to you for sticking with me. I hope that I have given you a morsel of something to work with. I cannot give you something you are already capable of, which is the power to let go of this feeling that is holding you back from living your life. You've had it with you all along, just as you've always been a beautiful person. I hope wherever you may be, you realize this ability to be brave and live. You are capable of really living, and who knows what else? Sky's the limit.
